A Framingham man does not deny downloading child pornography from the Internet, but said he did so only to find out how easy it would be for children to find it online.

Paul Franke, 43, pleaded not guilty yesterday in Framingham District Court to 11 child pornography-related charges and was released without bail.

After his court appearance, Franke, father of an 11-year-old boy, admitted he downloaded the more than 200 images from a file-sharing network, but not for personal gratification.

"I was only looking to see how easy it was to get it," said Franke, of 93 Alexander St. "It was very easy, only a couple of clicks. It was nothing. A child could have found it. A kid my son's age could find it."

State police assigned to the Middlesex district attorney's office's cyber protection unit began an investigation in April, prosecutor Dave Clayton said.

They logged onto a peer-to-peer network, in which people can share different audio, video and picture files via the Internet.

On that site, they located a file they knew to be a child pornography video, and the investigators tracked down a computer in Framingham that had downloaded the video, Clayton said.

They then remotely searched the computer and found at least nine other files consistent with child pornography and obtained a search warrant for Franke's Alexander Street home.

The state police served the warrant Monday night.

"The defendant was present during the execution of the warrant," said Clayton. "He stated he was the one in possession of the child pornography, and it was his computer."

Police searched the computer files and found at least 200 different child pornography files, the prosecutor said.

Franke was charged with six counts of possession of child pornography, three counts of possession of obscene matter, distribution of an image or video of a child performing a sexual act and distribution of an image or video of a nude child.

Clayton requested that Franke be released without bail, but with the conditions that he not use a computer, not use any device that can access the Internet, have no contact with children under 16 and to stay at least 50 yards from a school or playground.

Clayton said the conditions are necessary "to ensure the safety of the community and the children in the community."

Judge Paul Healy Jr. allowed the conditions.

"Children are our most vulnerable victims and we take child pornography cases extremely seriously," said Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone. Franke said he understands why police thought what he was doing was wrong, but insists he was just trying to find out how to protect children.

"No one asked my side of the story," he said. "I don't know how a site that you have to pay for can have this stuff so easy to get. All you have to do is log on and it is there. It's that simple. It was more out of curiosity."

Page 2 of 2 - Franke is due back in Framingham District Court on Aug. 7 for a pretrial conference.